


Warning Voice In The Night

by Lion_owl



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Dreams, For an exchange, M/M, Rare Pairings, Season/Series 05, Technobabble, this is kind of strange but it's Star Trek it's allowed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-17 00:31:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10582680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lion_owl/pseuds/Lion_owl
Summary: Shortly after Harry starts having vivid dreams of being with Tuvok, he is taken ill when Voyager is attacked by another vessel





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vyrenrolar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vyrenrolar/gifts).



> thanks to WrithingBeneathYou for the beta! title is from the song "i've got you under my skin" but not related

“You know he’s married, right?” Tom’s voice broke Harry out of his reverie, Neelix’s excuse for rice pudding sloshing where his friend placed the bowl on the table with perhaps a little too much force.

“Who?” Harry blinked, startled, trying to feign ignorance.

“You know who,” Tom said, eyeing his meal as though it might try to kill him, working up the courage to eat it. “You always go for impossible people: a hologram, an ex-Borg, the wrong twin, a woman from a xenophobic species and now,” he leaned forward, lowering his voice to a whisper, which Harry was grateful for; “our stoic Chief of Security – who’s _married.”_

Harry found himself casting a furtive glance to the other side of the mess hall, where the man in question was talking of something unknown to them with Captain Janeway as she enjoyed a cup of coffee. Tom’s eyes remained firmly on Harry, boring into him.

“Samantha’s married too,” Harry protested. “That didn’t stop her from hooking up with Seven.”

“Hooking up? Harry, listen to yourself,” Tom chastised him, but his tone remained friendly. “Have you ever heard of a Vulcan having casual sex?”

“Yes.” He said, indignant. He hadn’t, but that was beside the point.

Predictably, Neelix chose that particular moment to offer them a refill on their herbal tea. “who’s having casual sex with a Vulcan?” he asked.

“No-one,” Tom told him, a pointed glance in Harry’s direction. Neelix didn’t miss it.

“Let me guess: Vorik, from Engineering?” Neelix offered.

Harry tried to keep his gaze fixed firmly on the mug clenched tightly in his hands, but another glance in Tuvok and Janeway’s direction gave the game away. Neelix’s face lit up.

“Don’t,” Harry swivelled around to face Neelix, grabbing a handful of his jacket in a gesture that he hoped came across as mildly threatening but somehow he doubted that it did. “Don’t even think about telling anyone,” he said, trying to keep his voice a whisper but it didn’t quite work, a few people nearby turned towards the trio, trying to gauge what was going on, but quickly lost interest as Harry released Neelix’s jacket, and it hadn’t been enough of a commotion to attract the security officer or captain’s attention – or at least, for them to think it was worth doing anything about.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Neelix said, a tinge of discomfort in his voice, though more likely discomfort inspired by Tuvok than by Harry.

“They’re not actually having sex,” Tom clarified, “Harry just wants to.”

“I never actually said that I did want that,” Harry pointed out meekly, but Tom didn’t respond, he just sat back and dug into his rice pudding, shaking his head slightly. He’d dropped it for now, but Harry could tell this conversation was far from over.

*

_The planet where the sun always shines. That’s what the locals had called it. It was all he could have wanted in a shore leave destination. Harry stood atop a cliff, gazing out over the sparkling ocean. Down below, he could see a few of his crewmates splayed out on the white sand, watched as Captain Janeway tipped back her head and laughed joyfully at something someone had said; but he was happy where he was as Tuvok took his hand and led him down the hill a little to an area of shade beneath a thriving oak tree._

_“I brought a picnic for us to share,” Tuvok was kneeling on the ground, a basket in front of him, and removed the lid from a flask, the aroma of spiced tea native to his homeworld spilling out across the sky. He stood, and came back to Harry’s side, offering the drink. Harry took a sip before the flask disappeared, leaving their hands free to twine their fingers._

_“Be with me, Harry, in body and mind,” Tuvok’s voice was nothing more than a whisper. “I am for you.”_

_“And I am for you, Tuvok,” Harry responded, and they were on the ground, writhing together. If a voice in the back of Harry’s head was telling him this entire scene was off, he was ignoring it. He was happy here._

Harry woke with a start. The darkness of his quarters a stark contrast to the beautiful bright landscape of his dream. “Computer, lights,” he commanded, and the room illuminated the empty bed beside him. “not again,” he muttered to himself as he got up and went to his bathroom to wash the sweat from his hands and brow.

He was Harry Kim – the man who always went for impossible people, Tom was even keeping a tally, but they were all silly infatuations and none of them had ever treated him to such dreams before. And yet, this past week he had not one night failed to wake up on the tail end of vivid images of himself and Tuvok in a flurry passion.

*

“Harry! Wait up!” B’Elanna’s voice echoed down the corridor as he was heading to the holodeck to meet Tom. He stopped to let her catch up to him, and when she rounded the corner, he saw Tuvok was with her. He smiled at him awkwardly.

“Lieutenants,” he greeted them with a nod.

“Is something the matter, ensign?” Tuvok asked, and an image flashed through Harry’s mind of him in a less collected state, his breath ragged as he pressed Harry against the wall.

“I’m fine,” Harry shook the image away. He needed to get out of there. This wasn’t good. They could spend the rest of their lives on this ship, stranded in the Delta quadrant. He couldn’t avoid their chief of security for the next sixty years. “I’m fine!” he repeated, a little more aggressively than intended.

Tuvok raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. The three of them stood there, in a silence none of them seemed able to break. Eventually B’Elanna did: “we should get going, Harry,” she said “wouldn’t want to be too late to assist Captain Proton in saving the day and miss out on all the glory.”

Did Tom invite B’Elanna along? Harry wondered. Not that he minded, but he hadn’t thought she’d be interested. He didn’t ask her though, he didn’t trust himself to open his mouth in front of Tuvok.

“I was just heading to the bridge,” Tuvok supplied. “Are you available for a game of Kal-toh at eighteen hundred?”

Harry’s palms were becoming clammy. Damn it. He wanted very much to say yes, but he also knew it would be wiser to decline.

“ _You can’t avoid him forever_ ,” a voice in the back of his head reminded him.

“ _But you don’t need to exacerbate the situation by hanging out with him off-duty.”_ Another voice argued.

“I can’t tonight, sorry Tuvok,” the latter voice won out – for the moment.

“Then I shall see you on the bridge tomorrow,” Tuvok said the turbolift doors opened and he stepped inside.

“You should just tell him how you feel,” B’Elanna said when he was gone.

“What has Tom told you?” Harry demanded

“Nothing.”

“Neelix, then?”

“Nothing either. Harry, you’re so obvious, the way you look at him.”

He could feel a headache coming on.

*

“Tuvok, could I have a moment?” Captain Janeway said, walking into her ready-room. Tuvok followed. “What’s going on?” she asked when the doors had closed behind them.

“Please be more specific.” Tuvok said.

“What’s going on with you? You’re distracted.”

“I am performing my duties more than adequately.”

“I’m not asking as your Captain, but as your friend. Something’s troubling you.”

“Thank you for your concern, but I am quite fine.”

“We’ve known each other long enough now that I’m able to read the your minute body language. I’m not going to interfere in your private affairs while it’s not interfering with your job, but if you want to talk it out with someone, I’m more than happy to listen.”

Tuvok looked for a moment like he was about to say something, but seemingly decided against it.

*

_The bridge was empty. Harry was not sure where the crew had gone, but they weren’t here, and that was all that mattered. They were not there, all except for himself and Tuvok, who was sitting in the Captain’s chair, in nothing but a large shawl draped loosely over his body. Harry himself was naked, and he was kneeling on the floor in front of Tuvok._

_“Come down here,” he said, “join with me.”_

_Tuvok complied with the request, kneeling so that their knees touched as Tuvok’s fingers came up to Harry’s face, initiating a mind meld. “My mind to your mind. Our minds become one.”_

_And then there were no words, only the sensation of their separate identities disintegrating as they became a single entity. It was like they were bound together by vines winding around their bodies, while a cloud of ethereal dust floated before settling around them._

_As a non-Vulcan, Harry had no sense of his own, of what was going on outside the meld, no awareness of his physical body on the bridge, but through his connection to Tuvok’s mind he could feel himself being lowered to lie on his back, the shawl escaping from between them…_

The eighth night in a row, Harry woke up, sweating and clammy.

*

“Captain, I’m detecting some kind of object off the port bow,” Harry commented from his station on the bridge, where he was doing his utmost not to let his gaze drift in Tuvok’s direction.

“Object, anything more specific, Mr Kim?” Janeway asked, already on her feet.

“Sorry nothing – wait, there’s a ship decloaking.”

“They are hailing us,” Tuvok added.

“On the screen.”

“It’s audio only.”

 “We are here to collect our bounty,” an alien voice hissed, permeating the bridge, then there was a crackling sound before the channel went dead.

Harry was overcome with a wave of nausea

“They are powering weapons,” Tuvok said, in voice surely not as quiet as it sounded to Harry, and the edges of his vision were flickering.

“Shields,” Janeway commanded, and the last thing he saw was several crewmembers dashing towards him before everything went black.

*

“Please state the nature of the medical emergency.”

“Harry just passed out on the bridge,” Tom said, laying his friend out on a biobed. “We were attacked, transporters are down and I had to carry him all the way here myself.”

“Attacked? By whom?”

“Unknown, they said they were here to collect their ‘bounty’.”

“That message was heard all over the ship,” added Neelix, who had just walked into sickbay carrying an unconscious Lieutenant Sanders over his shoulders.

The Doctor’s comm badge beeped. “Ensign Wildman to sickbay,”

“Sickbay here. What can I do for you Samantha?”

“Naomi just fainted.”

Tom and the Doctor exchanged a glance.

“Can you bring her in, please? I have several cases of sudden fainting here as well.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

There ended up being more than ten people in sickbay due to a sudden lack of consciousness that was certainly connected to the alien attack. After the initial pulse they hadn’t fired another shot, and appeared to have left, although this possibility could not be trusted thanks to their cloaking technology. As of yet, none of the patients had come around.

“What was Naomi doing when she passed out?” The Doctor asked.

“She’d just woken up, she was complaining again about having another vivid dream. She was just walking to the replicator to get a glass of water when she fell.”

“Mum?” a small voice grabbed everyone’s attention and they turned to see Naomi struggling to sit up. “Why am I in sickbay?”

“Lie down,” the Doctor told her, running a tricorder over her.

“I had that dream again,” Naomi told them.

“What did you dream about?” Tom asked, curious.

“I was playing Kadis-kot in the mess hall with Seven. Mum was there too, reading a book. Neelix had said we could have free reign of his kitchen, but we ate too much food. When I woke up I still felt full and ill.”

“Interesting,” the Doctor glanced at the other beds. “Lieutenant Sanders has reported that she’s been repeatedly having the same vivid dream, but hers was of being interrogated by Romulans.”

“Uhm,” Tom coughed. He ought to say something. It seemed relevant… “Harry’s… made a similar complaint.”

“Oh?” The Doctor raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Yeah, vivid dreams, though his seemed to be pretty pleasant from what he’s told me.”

The Doctor continued to wait for further explanation, so Tom glanced at Naomi and shook his head slightly. It wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss the content of Harry’s dreams in front of a child. If the Doc got the message, he made no acknowledgement of it except to take his tricorder over to the still-unconscious adult patients.

*

“What happened?” Was all Harry could say. He was lying in sickbay, and he still felt rather queasy. “Have the aliens been defeated?”

“The Captain, Lieutenant Torres and Seven are looking for a way to locate and them as we speak,” the Doctor told him. “But we think they already have what they wanted.”

“What did they want?”

“You.”

“Me?” Harry didn’t understand.

“You and several others. It would seem they’ve been harvesting your neural energy for the past week; that’s why you’ve been having these dreams, they were sort of a side effect.”

That got his attention. He tried to sit bolt upright but everything hurt and he ended up lying on his side. “What are you talking about? Tom!”

“Mr Paris had to tell me, for medical purposes.”

Harry gave a resigned sigh. “So you’re telling me, aliens in a cloaked vessel have been stealing energy from my brain and causing me to have erotic dreams of T– that’s ludicrous.”

“If you have a better explanation, I’m all ears.”

That was when he caught sight of Naomi lying on the bed next to his own. “But,” he spluttered “but surely she didn’t…”

“No, everyone was dreaming of different things – the aliens’ technology sparked a cascade reaction in your cerebral cortex, which fought back by amplifying whatever thoughts were on your mind at the moment of the initial incursion, which attempted to act as a shield against the neural parasites. If it weren’t for those dreams, you’d be dead. As it was, I had time to apply my magnificent medical knowledge and carry out the operation that saved your life. You’re in stable condition.”

“I still don’t fully understand.” Harry said. “So what was that surge of power that knocked us out?”

“They tried to beam all of you affected off the ship, but they were no match for Voyager with our weapons trained on them, and they retreated.”

“But they had a cloaking device, so they could still be following us.”

“Let’s hope not. Ah, Lieutenant Tuvok, what can I do for you?”

“I’m here to see Mr Kim,” Tuvok said, sending Harry’s pulse racing.

“I’m not sure he’s fit to have visitors just now,” the Doctor said, with what Harry thought sounded like a pointed tone, but he could be wildly misinterpreting it.

“I will only be here for a brief time,” Tuvok promised, as Harry shifted onto his back so he could see the security officer. “Could we have a moment?”

“Very well,” the doctor said, returning to his office.

“How are you doing?” Tuvok asked, and Harry was sure his voice sounded different than normal – he couldn’t put a finger on exactly how it was different.

“My head still hurts,” Harry admitted.

“You’ve been through a great ordeal.” Harry could have sworn Tuvok leaned towards him slightly, which only made him more certain that he couldn’t trust his own mind. Or, maybe…

In a moment of impulsiveness, he reached out and offered his hand to Tuvok, expecting immediate withdrawal but was surprised when the gesture was accepted and a hand took his own. Was he still dreaming? Emboldened, he caressed Tuvok’s palm gently and spoke quietly:

“I think I’m falling in love with you.”

If he had still been dreaming, that would probably have led to Tuvok climbing onto the bio-bed beside him and divesting them both of their uniform and medical tunic, respectively; but as it was, and proving he was very much awake, his carelessness was rewarded with Tuvok standing up straight and backing away.

“You are delirious, Ensign,” he said, painfully candid. “I should leave you to the Doctor’s careful ministrations.” And then, he was gone.

“Good one, Harry,” he murmured to himself. “Smart.”

*

“It is good to see you on your feet again, Ensign,” Tuvok said, a week later when Harry was back on duty and had stopped by the mess hall on his way to Engineering to get a cup of tea.

“Thanks, Tuvok.” He’d had a week to mull over what he’d said, and decided that despite his better judgement, this was something he was going to try and pursue. “Fancy a game of Kal-toh later?”

“I would be honoured,” Tuvok said, although there was still an awkwardness in his response that hadn’t been there before Harry’s blunder. “I’m off-duty at sixteen thirty, shall I meet you then?”

“Sounds good.”

*

What were they doing? Why all this dancing around the issue? Harry wasn’t interested in playing Kal-toh today. All he wanted to do was talk to Tuvok. Talk, and maybe more if Tuvok permitted it, though that was unlikely, but at least talk in privacy. Not sit and move sticks of metal around a board and watch it change shape while surrounded by prying ears.

“So,” he began eventually, plucking up the courage. “Are we going to talk about what I said, or are we just going to ignore it forever?”

“What did you say, Mr. Kim?” Tuvok asked innocently, and how Harry wished he’d drop the formality and call him by his first name.

“You know full well what I mean, in sickbay when I said I…” this wasn’t really a good idea. Any of it.

“You were still recovering from your ordeal, you didn’t mean what you said.”

 _How dare he presume to know whether I meant it?_ Harry wondered, a knot of annoyance flaring up in his gut. This was a bad idea, this was a very bad idea. He could feel himself going into flight mode. Maybe he should just deny it. Agree with Tuvok and get this over with.

“You’re right,” he said. “I lied. I don’t love you.” He placed one of the Kal-toh sticks deliberately in the wrong place and watched the structure crumble. “I’m just a blabbering idiot.” And then he got up and left, unaware that Tom had been watching the situation unfold.

“Mr. Kim,” Tuvok tried, but Harry ignored him.

“Is this seat taken?” Tom asked as Tuvok watched Ensign Kim’s retreating figure. Why had he said that?

“Not now, Mr Paris,” Tuvok said, his voice clipped.

“Why not? You have a problem, and I have a solution.” Tom sounded highly irritated.

“I very much doubt that.”

“You haven’t heard it yet. Can I speak to you in private?” Tom asked, and Tuvok got the impression that Tom was going to talk anyway – he might as well grant the request, for his own sake.

“Why don’t you just talk to him?” Tom asked when they were in the deserted corridor outside the mess hall. Tuvok said nothing, no doubt he would continue anyway. “I can tell that you like him.”

“Can you, really?”

“For one thing, the way you were fretting over him when he was unconscious in sickbay. I didn’t see you standing worriedly over Sanders, Naomi or any of the other victims.”

“You are extrapolating, Mr Paris, and applying behavioural standards to me which cannot be applied.”

“And you taking his hand when he woke up?” he continued, undeterred.

“A moment of weakness,” Tuvok admitted.

“Ha!” Paris was triumphant. “But a weakness you _do_ have! Correct me if I’m wrong, but as a Vulcan you as good as kissed him then, did you not?”

“That’s enough, Lieutenant.”

“What are you going to do, Tuvok?” Paris asked.

What _was_ he going to do? He asked himself the same question as his feet carried him to Kim’s quarters. He was going to talk to Harry, but now he was faced with two options: pursue this, or remain as colleagues. He reached his destination before he reached a decision, and logically he should take time to think it over, plan what he wanted to say; he pressed the button anyway.

“Enter,” Kim called, and the doors slid open to reveal his cabin in almost darkness. He was lying on his sofa, brooding, and stood up immediately when he saw who his visitor was. “Lieutenant,” his voice was stiff, and his posture mirrored this.

“At ease, Ensign. I’m not here officially.” The relaxed slightly, but the cool distance remained between them. “I owe you an apology.”

“You don’t owe me anything. If anyone should be apologising, it’s me. I was too forward with you.”

“I should not have accused you of being so naïve about your emotions.”

“Well, looks like we’re even,” Harry said, forlorn. “I guess we can just put this behind us now.”

“I do not wish to simply forget.”

“Glad that’s settled then – wait, what?”

Was this an error in judgement on Tuvok’s part? He had a wife back on Vulcan… For five years, nearly six, he’d told himself it didn’t matter, had rejected more than one prospective new mates on the grounds that T’Pel and he would be reunited. But she may have moved on, and there was no guarantee he’d see her again, even if she hadn’t.

He’d made the mistake of choosing love once before, and it had nearly destroyed his life. But he’d been young then. Young, undisciplined, and in love with someone who would not understand the appeal of a relationship both open and restrained, one which could allow a trickle of one’s inner self to seep through his emotional barriers without opening the floodgates. Over the half-decade they’d known each other, Harry Kim had proved himself capable of understanding the Vulcan way in a manner that Jara never could have.

“I do not wish to forget what you said.” He repeated, unsure of himself for the first time in a long time.

“What do you want?” Harry asked, clearly shocked about what he was hearing.

“To give this a chance.” Tuvok took an almost tentative step forward. “To allow myself to experience the attraction I have developed towards you.”

“Am I dreaming again?” Harry asked. Had he dreamed about this? Well, that type of response was not uncommon among Humans.

“I assure you, it is quite real,” Tuvok raised a hand, holding two fingers out to Harry, who burst out into a wide smile as he pressed his own middle and fore fingers against Tuvok’s.

“I never would have believed it.”


End file.
